Assignment
Length: minimum 2,000 words
Format: MLA, Calibri (or equivalent sans serif font)
Directions:
Read "A Doll House" the play. Follow this link.
Then write a well-organized and developed paper on one of the options below. Develop and focus the paper on an overall, central, narrow thesis so that you are making a clear argument, not presenting a list or general idea. In other words, avoid plot summary and have a clear point.
• Option 1:
A Doll House makes many references to dolls, puppets, and playthings. Trace these references throughout the play while explaining Ibsen's ideas about gender and societal roles. Do they function as symbols, as metaphors? How do they aid the overall theme?
• Option 2:
Explain the characterization of Nora in the play.
• Option 3:
Discuss the use of lies and deception in the play. What purpose do they serve and how do they help develop the theme?
• Option 4:
Discuss the use of characterization in the play, specifically how paired characters act as foils. Consider one of the following pairings:
Nora and Krogstad
Nora and Dr. Rank
Nora and Mrs. Linde
Torvald and Dr. Rank
Torvald and Krogstad
Nora/Torvald and Mrs. Linde/Krogstad
• Option 5:
In his biography Henrik Ibsen, Michael Meyer writes that A Doll House is not as much about women's rights as about "the need of every individual to find out the kind of person he or she really is, and to strive to become that person" (478). Explain how the play supports this.
• Option 6:
Explain the setting of the play, placing Nora within cultural context, particularly domestic life for women at the end of the nineteenth century. If you wish, you may research the cultural/historical context for A Doll House, particularly social standards about marriage, roles of women, divorce, and child custody.
• Option 7:
Discuss the staging, the specific details of what we see in the play: the action takes place in a single room, the use of physical elements (the lamp, the stove, etc.) that might serve as symbols to support larger ideas in the play.